Florida strawberry growers and shippers survived another night of near-freezing temperatures, setting peak volume shipping back even more.
Temperatures fell to 34 degrees in the Plant City, Fla. area over night and in early morning hours of Dec. 3.
Larry Scarborough, salesman for BBI Produce Inc., Dover, Fla., said temperatures in some areas dropped to 33 degrees.
Scarborough said the company didn’t run any irrigation over night to prevent the berries from freezing, but other growers ran their sprinkler systems.
Scarborough said the near-freezing temperatures didn’t cause any damage.
He said the plants are too young in their growing stage to be damaged by a short period of freezing temperatures.
“In long run, it (the cooler temperatures) should help us,” Scarborough said. “It will slow us on the kickoff for the start of the season but will help produce plants better. It usually does, the more chilling you get, it helps develop the fruit and sugar.”
The series of cold snaps could delay Florida’s strawberry deal by up to a week. Though some growers in early December were picking smaller quantities of early varieties such as winter dawn, promotable volume normally doesn’t hit until late December.
Scarborough said pallet-quantity volume may not start until Dec. 23-24, when the festival and treasure varieties begin in volume.
Florida growers experienced some colder than normal weather over the previous weekend but the temperatures didn’t cause any damage, Scarborough said.
Source: thepacker.com
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